A community feel has helped St Eunan’s

By Michael McMullan

WHAT a difference a year has made for St Eunan’s who run out against Erne Gaels on Saturday evening at Brewster Park in the Ulster Senior Championship.

They were beaten by Termon in last year’s Preliminary quarter-final. Fast forward to now and the Letterkenny club secured the treble, with the hurlers and ladies’ footballers also at the top of the tree in Donegal.

“You couldn’t have wrote it at the start of the year,” said football captain Conor O’Donnell. “There’s a great buzz around the whole town.

“It’s just great to keep the lights on, we got new lights on the training pits this year. It’s great to have them, everybody is delighted and they (the pitches) have been kept busy.

“If you’d have given me this at the start of the year, we’d have taken your hand off, just get back to a final, not even talk about winning it after how last year went. To be preparing now for an Ulster Championship game, it’s just great.”

O’Donnell said the appointment of manager Kieran Donnelly and his number two Fergal Quinn was a boost but there has also been a wider change.

“There was a big sense of community, everybody’s pulling together, whether it was hurlers, whether it was the ladies, the minors, the 16s, everyone,” he said.

“A few of us got involved in coaching the underage teams, to try to bring back that sense of club that we maybe lost a wee bit last year.

“It feels like a small club this year. It doesn’t matter what game you go down to at the minute (to O’Donnell Park), you’ll always see the same heads about, whether it was a championship game against Down or whether it was an U14 game. It’s a small club in a big town.”

Narrow defeats

The last two outings in Ulster result in narrow defeats to Glen and Errigal Ciaran, clubs who went then went all the way to Croke Park, Glen taking the final step to bring home the biggest prize of all.

“The Ulster Championship ruthless, it doesn’t matter who you play in it, they’re ruthless,” said O’Donnell, who used the games as a barometer.

“You’re glad that you ran them close, gave them a rattle, are able to test yourself against them and you didn’t get blown away.

“Looking back, we would have liked to have got into Ulster more since 2021 than we have, but Donegal is tough enough.”

Much has been talking about St Eunan’s manager Kieran Donnelly being the former Fermanagh manager. On the flip side Erne Gaels are managed by Barry O’Hagan who has had spells with Kilcar and Glenswilly.

“He doesn’t live too far away from the town,” O’Donnell added. “They’ve been in the Ulster Championship for the last two years, so it’ll probably be no surprise to them or no shock to them that they’re in it. They won’t get overwhelmed with it; they’ll probably be focused.”